JUST FOR SUNDAY: 08/12/2012

Living With Reckless Abandon

In my last post, I wrote about being a rebel. Then I came across the saying “living with reckless abandon” and wondered how that might be the same or different than being a rebel.

Many of us in recovery certainly know how to live recklessly, until our lives have become a wreck. We may have been alcoholics or drug addicts who put ourselves in danger repeatedly as if just daring the world. Others of us in recovery may have been codependents or enablers—we tended to play it safe, to try to stop another’s reckless behavior. The thought of “reckless abandon” might be frightening to us.

But there is a happy medium. Just as we can have a good rebellion that benefits us, we can live with reckless abandon. Let’s think of reckless as “wreckless.” We can live with abandon provided it doesn’t wreck us. Our wreckless abandon is not wreckful. One rebel I knew decided to buy that motorcycle in midlife. Now, I know motorcycles can be dangerous, but they also feel wonderful to ride, so I wouldn’t necessarily call them wreckless, but if you’re going to ride without your helmet on, that’s another thing. You can live with abandon, but don’t risk your life in the process.

Living with reckless abandon is really about trusting. We do what we want to do, provided it doesn’t hurt us or anyone else, and we trust that all will be well. Healthy reckless abandon might include quitting a job to start our own business, trusting it will all work out, and realizing if we don’t take the leap of faith, we will never be happy with not having done so. Other examples might be publishing your book, becoming an actor or singer, or taking up a new sport, even a wild one like whitewater rafting, rock climbing, or bungee jumping, if you are certain of the safety elements involved.

Recently, part of my own reckless abandon was a willingness to beat cancer by doing what I mentally and spiritually knew was best for my body and my mental wellbeing by looking beyond strict medical protocol to find alternative forms of medicine and healing—and if you read my July 18th post, you know it worked!

When we live with reckless abandon, we abandon fear, we abandon the need to be safe, which is a fear in itself, we abandon our concern about what others will think; we even abandon our own critical judge who might warn us we are not good enough. We simply do what our heart and soul tell us to do to nurture ourselves.

In what ways can you live with healthy reckless abandon? I encourage you to look around and find at least one. Start small if it is less scary, but then build toward bigger things. I would love to hear from you how your reckless abandon experience went!